Last week, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex launched their Archewell website quietly. They still haven’t done anything with it but ask for people to sign up for updates, and I would suspect that they’re steadily growing an email list in the hundreds of thousands (maybe more). We also know that Archewell will probably be an umbrella foundation where they organize their far-ranging work and sundry projects. Like, even though many outlets claim that the Sussexes’ main focus right now is digital safety and hate speech and all of that, I think Archewell is going to be a lot more than that when all is said and done. Anyway, to celebrate the launch, “sources” chatted with Elle about Harry and Meghan’s vibe these days and their plans for the foundation. Some highlights:
Archewell is already up and running: A source close to the Sussexes shared with ELLE.com that their Archewell non-profit is already up and running—and has been in motion for some time now: “While Archewell hasn’t already had a formal launch, it is still already all of their work—the structure, the events, the research they’re doing, the people that they’re meeting. All of the effort they are putting in is within that umbrella. Over time, it is going to grow and grow.”
Changing the online world is the larger issue: “At the moment, the majority of their time and attention is definitely dedicated to the idea of creating, utilizing the online space for better,” a source close to the couple shared with ELLE.com. “They feel that it’s reached a very critical point. And it is a central reason or catalyst in so many of the problems we are facing.” The source added, “They both come at it especially from the place of mental health and personal wellbeing. But they have also seen firsthand the dangers of misinformation online“
2020 has been a rough year: It has not been an easy year for the couple, a source very close to Meghan and Harry said. “It’s been quite staggering, everything they’ve been through.” But they couldn’t be more devoted to what they’re trying to achieve with Archewell and are in a great place.
The criticism they received for being “political”: Yet the Duchess faced criticism in the U.K. for those actions, with some calling her comments “political,” when they were no different than the sentiments expressed by numerous public figures, politicians, philanthropists, and humanitarians across both sides of the political spectrum in the United States. A source close to the Duchess says the constant attacks have been difficult. “She thought she was saying something relatively uncontroversial, which is people should get involved and vote. Then, it gets spun into a whole other thing. There are people, especially in the tabloids, that will use whatever they can to go after this couple. There is no doubt there is an agenda.”
Just vote: “The Duke and Duchess believe in civic action, civic duty, social responsibility, and an element of that is participating in the democratic process, so all they have said is that they encourage people to get involved,” the source continued. “What they’re trying to do with the foundation is link a lot of the issues they believe in and find the connective tissue in all of it and actually find potential solutions. It is worrying and frustrating things get distorted so easily and readily on a regular basis. She [Meghan] now feels, [and] admits, as she said the other day, she has to be constantly careful about what she says and stick to what she thinks will not be controversial. Even telling people to get involved in the democratic process should not be a controversial subject.”
Considering that the British media has been blowing up everything Meghan says or does for four solid years now, the only thing I don’t believe is that Meghan was *surprised* by the reaction to her “people should vote” comments. She knew that her words would get attention, which is why she chose her words so carefully and why she did NOT endorse one candidate specifically. And she’s right, none of what she said was controversial or even all that political… unless you’re a f–king fascist and/or misogynist. As for this: “It’s been quite staggering, everything they’ve been through…” It is! But I bet the past seven months or so have been pretty restful for Harry and Meghan. I bet they’ve got some big things they’ll be doing and announcing soon.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
I don’t understand how ELLE are acting like they’ve got sources to talk to them. The comments about sources say Meghan is not saying anything uncontroversial has come straight from Meghan’s mouth. The rest just seem like things I’ve seen on here plus Twitter. I don’t know if ELLE needed a fluffy story to fill space out or something
The article is by Carolyn Durand, co author with Omid Scobie of FF; assume she does have sources, especially since the piece sounds like some mild PR around the Archewell launch.
Yeah I’m just going to assume it’s just mild PR thing for Archewell.
I agree with Sofia, the writer knows nothing and is using what can be gleaned from paying close attention to the Sussexes and social media. Carolyn Durand is not someone I would consider a Meghan and Harry source. Yeah, she co-wrote FF with Omid, but he was the trusted driver of that vehicle because he’s always been fair to the Sussexes, Carolyn has not. She’s mainly just wisely changed ships midway and got on the safer narrative, but I would be shocked if she had any credible information from the Sussexes.
They were uncontroversial. ELLE just needs some clicks. Next!
She was saying something uncontroversial!
Haters gonna always hate. Meghan has said nothing controversial. And thank you for the top picture of H&M in the rain. That’s my favorite photo of them and it always reminds of a rom-com movie poster.
You just know that picture is going to be on the cover of books written about them and will be recreated in any movies made about the two.
I am confused by the rain photo posted here. When I saw that photo originally, rain was visible but in the photo above it is not. ???
Here’s what I originally saw:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B9XTkG0p1X0/?igshid=zys3t5gxz8xx
Your link has the pic the whole world saw, and it was on this site too. I think this is one taken by a different camera or photographer, or a few seconds later? I love the one in the link, actually I loved all three outfits.
Of course her comments were uncontroversial, but because the british tabloids are, well, the british tabloids, her comments were twisted and used to prove that she was being “political.” Also I doubt they have anyone in their circle running to Elle.
Meghan talking is controversial because Meghan existing is controversial. These are the idiots that made eating avocados and shutting car doors controversial. She needs to ignore these fools. Racists gonna racist.
I’m looking forward to see what they do with Archewell. They shouldn’t pay any attention to the UK media’s reaction. These people have overreacted to every single thing they do that you really cannot take any of their criticisms seriously. I’m sure that there might be some meaningful commentary here and there but its drowned out by the over-the-top reactions to all things Sussex.
This goes without saying. Meghan is very careful about what she says, she’s had to be and still anything she says is blown up and deliberately misinterpreted by the BM. I don’t think she concerns herself anymore with how she’s misinterpreted because she now knows that’s par for the course. I am so curious about what they are going to do with their site and when we are going to learn something.
I hope they had a lot of people sign up to the website. I love that they march to the beat of their own drum while not trying to reinvent the wheel. I love also that they are not trying to compete with anyone and have chosen a platform seemingly to share information about what they are working on rather than attempt to show how relevant they are.
I’m tired of the media rehashing whether her words were controversial. They weren’t. Some people (Republicans) were just mad because they don’t want everyone to vote. They don’t actually want a democratic process that allows everyone to participate equally. They want a system in which black and brown people are disenfranchised so that political power remains in the hands of white people.
Exactly this. Also because Harry encouraged people to avoid hate, they immediately felt he was saying avoid Trump, which shows what they know about that person. Basically, those misinterpreting H/M words tell on themselves continually.
What Meghan said was not political, but simply being a biracial black woman with a voice is political.
I said this before…politically speaking I’m somewhere in the middle/independent. I never felt like Meghan was controversial at all. Of course we can guess that Meghan is left wing, in fact, we know it. But that’s just because who she affiliates herself with/and has called them inspiring for specific issues.
If we’re going to get all upset over this, then we’re basically telling royals not to be friends with anyone politically outspoken, not to highlight the work of certain people because of it, and to only focus on non partisan issues (and in this day and age that’s rare because even covid became a partisan issue). Yeah good luck.
People are more bothered by her race than anything else. Her race is a constant reminder that she doesn’t stand for oppression, as opposed to a white woman, who may come across as liberal at times, who they can imagine is on their side as long as they shut up and cut ribbons, like K8!
CC, Thanks for expressing what I wanted to say much better than I could. It just occurred to me that people would have LOVED if Kate had done what Meghan did with Vogue (like it wasn’t an issue with Kate guest editing what is regarded as a left wing outlet, Huffington Post) because it would have been seen as a white saviour move- giving a few POC a shot at representation. She would have been seen as a generous benefactor. Whereas because of who Meghan is, her doing it its seen as a threat to whiteness and like she has ‘vested interest to champion POC’
I have been thinking this from the beginning. If Kate had duchessed like Meghan from the beginning, or at any point since her arrival, she would have been the most lauded woman on the planet. Seriously, if you switched their resumes, it would have been a dream come through for the BRF. The problem is that Meghan is married to the spare first of all and secondly, she’s part Black. I think we are going to see Kate slowly starts trying to morph into Meghan , she’s already begun adopting the attire.
Yup, the threshold to attack Kate for being political is higher.
The people who stan royals are usually conservatives who are upset that celebs are not on their side. They can act as if they’re liberals and say dumb crap like how they finally agree on Trump when he insulted Meghan, but lets be real. We all know where they stand politically.
As a result, they want their royals to not come across as liberal even if they know deep down that they are, just so they can pretend that they’re conservative. This is why Kate is suddenly branded as elegant TradWife lite, even though she was stumbling drunk out of clubs with no underwear back then. While Meghan is still slut shamed for raunchy scenes despite Meghan being dressed modestly throughout royal life and even asking the Suits writers to tone it down! I would even argue that Meghan was generally more “modest” than Kate was, because you don’t see her publicly losing control of herself. Most of her ‘sexy’ moments were acting.
They can’t “forget” that she’s a liberal even if she plays TradWife. And Meghan has played that role whenever the whole family is together. Seriously. That woman was so meek and nervous and even her actions in those events are branded as ‘attention seeking’. They can’t point to Vogue and her accidental comments on abortion, because the criticism already started before then.
I’m saying this because I’ve recently moved from moderare right to centre/leaning left recently, and I’ve seen this in those spaces i was once part of. Today, I don’t care that Meghan and I probably disagree on certain things as long as she doesn’t go down the rabid route of attacking my character (and she hasn’t even pre Harry). We agree on big issues like sexism and racism, so who cares really, lol.
Her slight tan and facial features are a reminder that she’s not going to tolerate their politics. You can see this when they even branded her makeup as Hollywood while Kate as tasteful at the same time…even though both have the same makeup.
“If we’re going to get all upset over this, then we’re basically telling royals not to be friends with anyone politically outspoken, not to highlight the work of certain people because of it, and to only focus on non partisan issues (and in this day and age that’s rare because even covid became a partisan issue). Yeah good luck.”
^^^ The problem with the above is that Royals traditionally associate with the Aristocracy, Toffs and the very rich. They don’t need to be outspoken because they control the structures of society.
The whole must stay partisan thing is just a way to control the party line. The Royals are very over paid and under performing charity workers. Time to ditch them.
They don’t even want her to cut ribbons and say nothing. If she did that, they would criticize that as well. There’s no understanding of empathy or doctrine of fairness when Meghan is concerned. Meghan is “unworthy” by not being white. She should not be allowed into the most exalted of white spaces, according to those that hate her.
I feel when you see what the UK press says about them is so far removed from what the Sussexes are actually doing and living. The press over there still reports on them as though they are still full time working royals, in competition with the Cambridge’s but the Sussexes have moved on from that and it’s not their day to day reality. That’s why the tabloids and Rota go on about military appointments and duty, and titles, or what Philip thinks because that’s the only link. They’ll still have to navigate around and stay on top of the UK press because they constantly lie and attack, but other than that, they are building their lives with their new normal. They’re busy, have bills to pay, work to do, and a child to raise.
Eh. At this point, Meghan should just ignore the haters and continue moving onward and let those folks sit and spin!